@Romi's Studio: Blog Tour: Contemporary Irish Knits

Last year (was it really only last year? it seems so long ago!), two of my local knitting friends flew off to spend time at the ill-fated UK Knitting Camp. Being them, they had a great time. (Honestly, I think they could have a great time shoveling manure.) They came back with all sorts of tales of the people they met and the fun they had. One of them mentioned meeting a designer from the area, who had been teaching at the camp. She said this designer reminded her a lot of me and that we would really hit it off. But she couldn't remember her name because she had met so many people that weekend!

Fast forward to TNNA in Columbus this year. We were all sitting around and knitting in the lobby of the hotel, and I was introduced to Carol Feller. She immediately said, "I met some of your friends!" Mystery solved. And after another 40 minutes, I realized my knit-buddies were absolutely right. Carol and I had a ton in common, and, barring jet lag, could have talked all night.

So, of course I needed to be a stop on her blog tour. Right?! (Check Carol's site for the other stops!)

Contemporary Irish Knits is great little book with something in it for everyone in the family, even the men! And since my family, in fact, consists of men, those were the knits that first drew my attention. It is almost unheard of that Mr. Romi would wear a sweater with any type of patterning on it. But I knew immediately that he would actually wear the two men's sweaters. Yay for Carol and her similarly male family! Our very favorite one is the aran hoodie: Straboy.

It's rugged and textured, with just the right amount of patterning and a generous sized hood.

I love that there is no ribbing or drawstring, and the hood flows out of the center textured panel.

It looks like a sweater you could wear day after day after day.

A favorite sweater for mucking around and then relaxing in front of the fire. I've almost convinced myself to knit it. Almost. Did I ever mention Mr. Romi played football in college? Yes. He's big.

Then there's the more dressy Knockmore, with just enough detail and stitch pattern to make it interesting to me from a knitting perspective and acceptable - even very much likable! - to Mr. Romi. Another winner.